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No plans for 100% electric car from Ferrari, says MidEast chief

"It's good to save fuel, but for us, it's more important to boost performance," says CEO of Ferrari Far and Middle East, Dieter Knechtel

By Lubna Hamdan

Mon 25 Sep 2017 12:52 PM

Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari will not be launching electric or autonomous cars, according to chief executive of the Far and Middle East, Dieter Knechtel.

Speaking to Arabian Business at the launch of the brand’s 70th anniversary limited edition models in Dubai, Knechtel said electric and self-driving cars are “not fitting with the brand.”

“To be honest with you, I don’t see our clients [being interested] in a self-driving, autonomous Ferrari. Electrification is very important for us, but there will not be any 100 percent electric car coming from Ferrari,” he said.

However, Knechtel said the brand is working on incorporating hybrid technology across all of its models.

“There is a lot of research going into it. You will see hybrid Ferrari cars across all ranges in the future, I assume. In a couple of years, we will probably launch the first one, out of the normal range, with a hybrid engine. But what is important to mention here is we want to apply the Ferrari approach when using hybrid technology.

"It's good to save fuel, but for us, it's more important to boost performance," says CEO of Ferrari Far and Middle East, Dieter Knechtel

“When you look at the V8 engine that we launched for the 488GTB Spider, it has been awarded the best turbo engine of the year two times in a row. It’s the best turbo engine in the market, because we managed to produce it with no turbo lag. It is forbidden for Ferrari to have turbo lag. Our clients deserve something more. When we talk about the hybrid engine, the same thing applies. We would like to have our own hybrid approach. We are not followers of any trends,” he said.

Knechtel added that the purpose of applying hybrid technology will not be to save fuel, but to boost performance.

“It is also not our ultimate goal to develop a hybrid only for the purpose of saving fuel. It’s good to save fuel, but for us, it’s more important to boost performance. We want to be the highest performing car. We have always promised to be so. We have fulfilled it and we want to keep our promise. Clients expect that from us and we don’t want to fail them,” he said.

Knechtel was in Dubai to celebrate the brand’s 70th anniversary, where the LaFerrari Aperta and two special edition cars were unveiled to mark the occasion.